Operation: GWABS
by Deezle
Summary: G.W.A.B.S - Girl With A Broken Smile. Numbuh 4, under the stress of not performing to his best, runs away from the KND and cuts all communications with it. Two years later, he returns to set things right...but can he reclaim the thing he loved most?
1. Escape

Girl with a Broken Smile

"That," muttered Numbuh 1, "is the last straw." The familiar Kids Next Door team from Sector V were worn out from escaping the deadly wrath of Father once again. At first it was just a simple mission to retrieve a KND 2x4 L.U.N.C.H.B.O.C.K.S from the Delightful Children, but Numbuh 4 had blown their cover. He had been doing that a lot lately.

Numbuh 4 – Wallabee Beetles – was a born and bred tough guy. He was brash and impulsive, and couldn't help it. It all started with his brother, Brad (now an adult, married, and living in Melbourne) and his little cousin Joey. They were hanging out in a trailer park when Wally was 8 and doing half-time training at the KND Antarctic base. Joey was tossing rocks into a nearby lake, and Brad was skipping stones professionally, trying to impress a girl leaning out of a trailer window. Wally just couldn't understand it. His brother was ignoring him more and more every day, and they were growing apart.

"Come on," said Joey. "Try it, it's fun!" "Huh?" Wally replied. "Throwing rocks, dummy," said Joey with a pout. "Nah," said Wally. "Why not?" Joey asked. "I'm scared I might throw one too hard and hit something else." "You won't," replied Joey. "Watch, I can throw really hard and..." Joey picked up a small stone and lobbed it hard across the lake. Or at least he tried to. Instead, he hit Brad, who was on the bank to the right of them. "Joeeeeey!" whined Brad. "Stop cramping my style." "What style?" Joey yelled back. "Ya ain't got any." Annoyed, Brad whipped up a rock and hurled it at Joey. Joey ducked and it crashed through a window of the trailer behind him. "Uh-oh," Brad breathed. He picked up his backpack and started running back in the direction of home.

Just then, a huge, burly man stepped out of the trailer. "Do you realize how much that cost me?" he shouted at Joey. "I didn't do it!" Joey screamed. "Yeah right," he laughed, picking him up. "And ya have proof?" "HE did!" Joey insisted, pointing in the direction Brad was in. Emphasis on the WAS. The man sniggered. "There's no escaping, kid."

Wallabee shuddered. Just the thought of being picked up seemed intimidating to him. He should save Joey...but that meant the guy would pack a punch to him too. But it was his cousin – he was defenseless. Just then, the man glared fiercely at Wally. That made up his mind. Wally ran.

That night, Mrs Beetles told Wallabee that Joey had gotten a broken nose and a fractured wrist, and did he know anything about it. Wally shook his head and went into his room.

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Wally lay on his bed, staring at his wrestling posters. How could he have been so stupid? He should have rescued Joey, no matter what. Now Joey would be disfigured for his life because of him. Wally sighed, and sat up. From now on, he'd have to be quick. Regardless of the circumstances, he should do what first comes to him. Even if it meant he had to rush into things.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" demanded Numbuh 1, staring at Numbuh 4. "I'm....I'm sorreh," said Wally, staring at the floor. "That's the seventh time you've done that, and Numbuh 5 is NOT amused." Numbuh 5 said, lying on a couch. "Yeah," Numbuh 2 agreed. "You're not trying hard enough." "I tried as hard as I could," Numbuh 4 said defensively. He looked to Numbuh 3 for support. And for the first time, Numbuh 3 avoided his gaze and stared in the opposite direction. "Numbuh 1, we've been through this before. Remember that hamster, Numbuh 4b? Remember how THAT turned out?"

Nigel sighed. "I think," he said, "That you're more of a drawback to the Kids Next Door than an asset." He glared at Wally, who glared back. "I am NOT. Think of all the missions you've successfully completed because of me." "What missions?" countered Numbuh 1. "Besides, I don't; think our team would work just as well without me." "It definitely WOULD."

Wally stared in surprise at Numbuh 1. "...you just don't care about me, do ya? Ya probably wouldn't notice if I just disappeared." "Oh, we would notice," said Numbuh 1. "We just wouldn't mind. "Fine!" said Wally. "Fine. I might just leave ya all and this popsicle stand tonight and you would probably all love it." "We probably would." Nigel's stony gaze hit Wally like a poison dart. Wallabee couldn't believe it. He stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him. Wally strode into his own room and made the door lock behind him. And, for the second time in his life, Wally began to cry.

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Numbuh 4 body-slammed one of his fighter robot sin his boxing ring angrily. They couldn't work without him. But maybe they could. Numbuh 1 said so, and when Numbuh 1 says something, he means it. This was the last straw for Wally, too. He had been contemplating the prospect of running away for some days now. And this made him decide to do exactly just that. Wallabee switched off the robot and climbed down the stairs to the main part of his room. He started to toss a few things into his bag and sat patiently, waiting for the KND to fall asleep.

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Numbuh 3 was bawling her eyes out. "We didn't have to be so mean to Numbuh 4," she said tearfully. "He really did try." "He deserved it," snarled Numbuh 1, switching on the TV. "No," said Numbuh 3 defiantly. "He didn't." "Give it a rest, Numbuh 3." Numbuh 2 returned from the kitchen, holding a large pack of chips. "It's not like he's really gonna run away or anything," he said through a mouthful of tortilla chips. "I think he might," Numbuh 3 whispered, trudging back to her Rainbow Monkey-ridden room.

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The digital clock in Wally's room beeped. It was 1 AM. He should start going now. He silently slipped through his door. Numbuh 4 slowly walked along the hallway, and stopped in front of Numbuh 3's door. He could hear her breathing through the silence of the treehouse. Wally wiped a tear away from his eye. It hurt him so much just to leave without saying anything to Numbuh 3. He started to scrabble around for something in his backpack to leave for her, and pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen. He started to write. Then he slipped it under her door, and started to climb down a rope ladder under a window in front of her door.

Wallabee was both angry and sad. He wanted to get away from the Treehouse as fast as possible. He jumped down from the ladder, and started running as fast as he could down the street. He wasn't really sure where he was going, but he wanted to go there as fast as he could. He reached the candy store three streets over, closed his eyes, and fell into a fitful, nightmare-filled sleep.

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Dear Numbuh 3,

I'm sorry, but I have to do this. Last night really made up my mind. I hate doing this to you – just leaving without saying goodbye, I mean. So...bye, I guess. Oh, and before I go, I want to finish what I was going to say in what Numbuh 1 put down as Operation: U.N.D.E.R.C.O.V.E.R. Numbuh 3 – Kuki – I like you. As in, I LIKE like you. I really do.

- Numbuh 4

"No," said Numbuh 3. "He didn't." She tossed the piece of paper on the floor and hugged one of her Rainbow Monkeys. She sobbed and flung herself down onto her bed, a giant soft toy. "How could he have been so stupid?" she whispered, clutching her Rainbow Monkey. Then she smiled through her tears. "He likes me," she muttered. "He LIKE likes me...I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! He is SO obvious." Numbuh 3 grinned, watery-eyed, and rolled over on her bed. "Numbuh 4 was never any good at making decisions anyway. He probably couldn't help it."

Just then, a knock rang through Numbuh 3's room. "Hey, Numbuh 3." Numbuh 5's voice drifted to Kuki's ears. Numbuh 3 stifled a sob. "Are ya gonna come out and eat your breakfast or does Numbuh 5 have to drag ya out?" "Coming," said Numbuh 3, tucking her Rainbow Monkey into its bed. She wiped her eyes and came out of her room.

"Finally," Numbuh 5 said, relieved. "Now Numbuh 5 has to wake up Numbuh 4..." "Don't," said Kuki sadly. "He's not coming." Abby looked puzzled. "I...I talked to him earlier." "Okay..."Numbuh 5 replied. "Come on," she said, grabbing Kuki's hand. "Let's go." Numbuh 3 sadly walked down the stairs and into the dining room.

Kuki sat down next to Numbuh 2 and Numbuh 4's empty seat. "Hey Numbuh 3," Numbuh 2 greeted, shoveling cereal into his mouth. "Where's Numbuh 4?" "Wallabee's not coming," she said, starting to tear again. "She called him Wallabee? Something's gotta have happened. I have a feeling," Hoagie whispered to Nigel. Numbuh 1 nodded. "I wonder what..." Nigel whispered back, casting a worried glance at Numbuh 3. Kuki poked at her Rainbow-O's and then put down her spoon, leaning back in her chair. Numbuh 5 looked nervously at Numbuh 3. "Numbuh 3 –"she said, shaking her gently. "Tell me what's wrong."

Numbuh 3 tightly grabbed Abby's arm and pulled her to the landing where the KND's rooms were. She dragged her into her room, and shoved the note in her face. "Look what Wally did," she sobbed. "That...ugh, Numbuh 5 doesn't believe it..." "You better," Kuki said, sitting down on a lime green sofa. "Well...do you know where he went?" Numbuh 5 said, joining Kuki on the sofa. "No," she replied, shaking her head. "Well...let's go see what he took with him," Numbuh 5 said, walking out of the room. Numbuh 3 followed her into Wally's. "Now look around for what's missing." "Okay," Kuki replied, looking around the room.


	2. Something Lost Will Be Found

So glad y'all like it. Here's the rest!

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"CRUDDY SUNLIGHT!" Wallabee Beetles yelled at the sky. "Can't leave me alone for a cruddy second, can ya?" Numbuh 4 stretched and stood up. The candy store doorway was very small and cramped, but Numbuh 4 loved it nonetheless. The drifting smell of taffy and the colorful candies that surrounded him made him feel a little better. Now what could he have for breakfast? Gumballs? Numbuh 4 loved gumballs. He always used to go into battle with him favorite 2x4 weapon, the G.L.U.M.B. He remembered sitting in the aftermath of the battle, popping leftover gumballs into his mouth. "Well, those days are over," Wally said bitterly. He pushed open the candy store door and walked up to the guy at the counter.

Even since Mr Jelly was revealed to be Knightbrace, the local dentist's younger brother had taken over. "A huge bag of gumballs," Numbuh 4 demanded. The man handed him a bag. "Fill her up," he said cheerily. "Thanks. Put it on the....on the Kids Next Door account," Numbuh 4 said, pulling his hood over his head. He should stop charging things to the KND. Wally strode over to the gumball machine and turned the tap. Gumballs came tumbling into the empty bag. Once it was full, Numbuh 4 walked out of the shop, stuffing his face with the round, spherical, chewy goodness.

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"His watch, lotsa orange hoodies, lotsa jeans, some wrestling posters, his diary, some money, a KND two-way radio, some comics..." "Hold up," Numbuh 5 said. Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 5 had finally decided what was missing. "What was that again?" "Comics," repeated Numbuh 3. "No – before that," 5 said. "A Kids Next Door 2-way radio," Kuki said. A grin spread across Numbuh 5's face. "Numbuh 4 hasn't lost communications totally," she said.

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Wally slammed his radio down on the ground. "Cruddy piece a junk," he said. The microphone and speakers were broken. "How am I supposed to ask Numbuh 2 for my boxing gloves back with no radio?"

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"I take that back," Numbuh 5 muttered, hanging up the treehouse radio line. "He musta broke it or something...." Numbuh 3 looked depressed. "I wish he'd come home," she said tearfully. "I'll wait until I'm decommissioned until he comes back." "Whichever comes first," Numbuh 5 muttered.

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2 YEARS LATER

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." Wallabee muttered to himself. "That's what I was, but I'm not stupid anymore." He kicked a can away from him. The 'former' Numbuh 4 was walking to the bus stop to get to school. He was 12 – and would almost be decommissioned. If he were still in the KND, that is. Wally was remembering back when he first ran away from that organization. He'd lost all contact with the KND, and he had wandered the streets for about a day, then came to his senses and decidedly went home.

Wally slung down his backpack next to the bus sign. He leaned against the pole as a giggling group of girls walked by, winking and waving at him. Wally slumped down a little bit more. "He's so dark and sensitive," the girls whispered to each other. "Looking so poetic and moody!" Inside, Wallabee burned. Him? Sensitive? Oh, come on. Poetic? He couldn't even spell Mississippi. He continued his trudge down memory lane.

There were no regrets floating about in Numbuh 4's mind, except for one nagging memory. A memory of a brunette, Japanese girl named Kuki Sanban – Numbuh 3. If there was anything that would convince him to have stayed in the KND, it was her. "Oh, god," he muttered, practically on the sidewalk now. "I...loved her so much..." Wallabee shook his head, mentally whacking himself. OK, NOW he was getting sensitive. He could almost hear her voice now. "Numbuh 4," she was saying. "Numbuh 4! Over here!" Odd, Wally thought. It was so crystal clear. At that moment, the school bus parked itself in front of him and a bunch of other students.

Climbing onto the bus, he plumped himself into the back seat. For some reason, Kuki's voice was still ringing in his head. Wallabee swiveled around. Somebody was probably pranking him - and if that was the case, he'd beat the crud out of them. To his utter shock, he saw a girl running after a bus. A happily smiling girl clad in an oversized green sweater and a pair of black pants. Wally gasped for breath – it couldn't be. No way! "Numbuh 3!" he screamed, pressing his face into the window, paying no attention to the kids staring at him inside the bus. All he could do was watch as Kuki chased after the bus until she was out of breath.

Wallabee watched the girl stand in the middle of the almost deserted road, panting, a single, bright green figure amongst the white and grey of suburbia. Wally turned around. He couldn't believe it. It was so...close. SHE was so close. "Argh!" he said, a little quieter, not wanting to attract more gazes. He punched the seat. Crossing his eyes, the thought of him losing Numbuh 3 again sunk deeper into his mind. Maybe he was still stupid after all...

Stupid. Oh, so stupid.

Wallabee's brain wandered into blankness. He couldn't think any more, everything was so blurry. All of a sudden, a crash rattled the school bus like ice in a glass. Wally was jerked back to reality. Jumping to his feet, he automatically reached for his pocket, then realized he didn't have any 2x4 technology. No weapons. He wasn't technically a Kid Next Door anymore. Sullenly sinking back into his seat, Wally waited to see if anyone did anything.

The tip of a small laser cutter poked through the ceiling, slicing a neat circle in the roof of the bus. A blonde, short-haired girl popped through the hole and ran over to the driver. "Keep moving," she demanded, spinning around. The number '362' was displayed boldly in purple on her shirt. Following her were a bald boy in a red sweater and a boy in a 20's fighter pilot helmet. Wally squinted. "It...isn't. It can't be!" he gasped, once again at a loss for words. He jumped off his seat again, rushing over to them. The boy in the leather helmet looked a little skinnier than Wally had remembered, and the bald kid had appeared to have purchased a pair of baggy grey pants instead of his usual shorts.

"Numbuh 2!" Wally yelled happily. Numbuh 2's response was to whack him on the back of the head. "Doofus!" he said cheerily. "Why did you run away?" "I don't know," Numbuh 4 lightly lied. The bald boy turned to face Numbuh 4. "Er. About....about that night..." "It's OK," Wally said. Well, after years, of course it was. "I just want to say I'm sorry," Numbuh 1 gabbled quickly. "I don't really know what happened..." Wally smield evilly. "Lizzie problems?" he said. Nigel blushed. "No!" he denied loudly, shuffling back nextto Numbuh 2.

Then, an African-American girl – Numbuh 5 - dropped from the roof. Flicking up her red baseball cap, she scanned Numbuh 4. "Well, what do ya know," she declared. "Fool," she grinned. "You got Numbuh 3 all worried." "I did?" Wallabee said. "What did she say? How did she...I mean...oh. Yeah. That's nice." Numbuh 5 eyed Wally. "Are ya blushing?" she smiled. "Uhh, no," Wally said, hoping he wasn't bright red. "Um. Where's...where's Numbuh 3?" he said. The operatives eyed each other.

"Well...it's like this," Numbuh 1 said, attempting to explain. Numbuh 2 rolled his eyes. "Numbuh 30C probably rescued her from the road and took her out for a soda," he said. Numbuh 1 glared. "Numbuh 2! I thought we agreed we were going to break this to him slowly. If ever," he added nervously. Wally – or should I say Numbuh 4 – looked at them suspiciously. "What?" he said. "Er. Well. Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 30C..." "They're going out," said Numbuh 2 in a rush. "Hoagie!" said Numbuh 5 harshly. "There, now you know," he said, patting Numbuh 4 on the back. He looked at the expression on Wallabee's face. "I'm sorry, buddy," he said.

Numbuh 4 just couldn't believe it. "G...going out?" he stuttered. This just didn't make sense. How could she? It didn't make sense, now that Wally thought about it. Why would she chase after him if she already had a boyfriend? And how did the rest of the team find him anyway? Pushing these thoughts away for now, Wally managed to open his mouth. "How did you guys locate me?" he said, not able to keep the sadness from his voice. "Do you have me micro chipped or something?" he said, laughing feebly. "Not you, exactly..." Numbuh 362 said, wandering back towards the operatives. "Keep driving!" she snapped at the bus driver.

"For Numbuh 3's birthday, we gave her a bracelet hat had a small locater which made her visible on a digital map by global positioning satellite because she kept wandering off to look for YOU." She explained. Most of the technological jargon just flew over Wally's head, but he got the general gist. "It also had a tiny microphone on it that would transmit anything of importance. We usually give them to operatives who tend to get lost or wander off. It's relatively new, so you didn't get one when you ran away," Numbuh 362 smiled. "We have an operative on the other end skimming over the transmissions to try and find items of importance. Well, this time we stationed Numbuh 23 over at that particular station, but she had gone off to call some guy and left the machine on speaker. I happened to be passing by, and picked up some of Numbuh 3's ramblings about a school bus stop on Oakland Avenue and something about you – so we came over to retrieve her and find out if what she said was of anything significant."

Numbuh 4 nodded. "yeah. OK." He had heard about half of 362's speech, and his mind was back on Kuki. She DID care...


End file.
